Otzi is a mummy that was found in Italy in the Ötztal Alps. He was found in 1991 by German tourists Helmut and Erika Simon. He is believed to have lived around 3,300 BC! At first, they thought he was the body of a lost hiker and called the police to investigate. They thought that it could be a homicide and they chipped ice to get to the body. They brought in a drill to get Otzi out, and damaged his hip. It was revealed that he was much older, around the neolithic, in fact. Items like his clothing, boots, and weapons like a flint knife and copper ax were with him and helped date him. Otzi was determined by scientists to be 5,5′, be 110 pounds, and be 49 years old. His last meal consisted of things like deer meat and einkorn wheat. Otzi had whip worm and was lactose intolerant. He was also sick around six months before his death. Blood was discovered in Otzi’s veins with intact blood cells, amazingly. Scientists also discovered tattoos on Otzi’s body. They were short parallel lines over joints on his body and may have been therapeutic. Otzi had some clothes preserved as well,

Otzi’s clothes were sophisticated. He wore a cloak made of woven grass and a coat, a belt, a pair of leggings, a loincloth and shoes, all made of leather of different skins. He also wore a bearskin cap with a leather chin strap. The shoes were waterproof and wide, seemingly designed for walking across the snow; they were constructed using bearskin for the soles, deer hide for the top panels, and a netting made of tree bark. Soft grass went around the foot and in the shoe and functioned like modern socks. The coat, belt, leggings and loincloth were constructed of vertical strips of leather sewn together with sinew. His belt had a pouch sewn to it that contained a cache of useful items: a scraper, drill, flint flake, bone awl and a dried fungus. (Wikipedia)

Otzi is significant to science in that he helps them study neolithic people and is the oldest known mummy in Europe. Otzi can be found in the South Tyrol Museum in Italy.